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«Both sides are spoiling for a fight on this one and there is a fair
amount of unattractive posturing. When push comes to shove, I have to
say that I would take a lot more notice of the outrage in the Middle
East if I had not come across dozens of anti-semitic cartoons
published in the Arab press.

The striking part of Arabic Jew-baiting is that it is as prevalent,
nasty and dehumanising as it ever was in Nazi Germany. Newspapers
published in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Oman and UAE all use
demonic images of stereotypical Jews (big nose, black coat and hat and
laden with money bags) pulling the strings behind the scenes in US
politics, buying political influence and spreading death, terror and
disease. Josef Goebbels would have felt quite at home reading these
newspapers.»

«Most intriguing was the reaction of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, who, while condemning the 'horrific' images, took time, in a posting on his website, to criticise those who had 'darkened' Islam's image.

'The problem with this issue,' said a Palestinian former European Union employee who asked not to be identified, 'is that... we should be demonstrating that we are strong and that this cannot damage Islam. Instead what we are showing is a sign of our extreme vulnerability.'
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